


all that we could be

by listenup_folks



Category: fifth harmony - Fandom
Genre: David archuleta song duh, F/F, High School AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 05:39:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10379691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/listenup_folks/pseuds/listenup_folks
Summary: Camila's kind of got a crush on Lauren Jauregui





	

**Author's Note:**

> a bit of a trigger on attempted rape (drunken taking advantage of) I didn't tag cause idk if that counts? But yeah lmk what you think
> 
> @ longerr_hours on watty

Camila wouldn't call herself smart. Hardworking maybe, someone who puts too much pressure on herself sure, but smart? Not totally. 

Shawn and Dinah prefer the word insane to describe her. Being smart is one thing, but doubling up on math and science in the same year? Sounds a bit like torture. Most people take one somewhat challenging elective and then an easy one to have a break, but Camila feels behind since their school makes freshmen do earth science instead of biology, so chemistry and intro to statistics it is. 

The first day of school she realizes it might not have been the best idea. Statistics is first period and the syllabus itself is scary enough, not to mention the fact that she's the only underclassman in the class. 

She has her study period to calm herself down, but then it's off to biology then chemistry back to back. 

"Okay well me and Shawny boy are off to photography 2, which is you know, the same exact thing as photo 1 so you have fun in your torture," Dinah comments as the three walk down the halls after biology ends. 

"Yeah Mila for real I don't get how you're going to do all this, but actually you are kind of a genius so you'll probably handle it all fine," Shawn adds from the other side of Dinah. "But you're off in A414 right? Cause this seems like your exit," he jokes gesturing to one of the rooms on her left and she huffs, nods and waves them off before going for her next junior class. 

"Have fun Mila!" she hears Dinah call after her but she ignores it and slowly enters the room scanning for someone she might recognize to sit with. She isn't exactly the most social, so aside from the workload having no friends in any of her classes is pretty scary too. 

Luckily she spots Normani, one of the girls who runs student council sitting at a lab group in the end of the room with a girl she doesn't recognize and makes a move towards her with a wave that's reciprocated. The two have hung out a few times but have enough mutual friends that Camila feels comfortable in taking a seat across from Normani and diagonal from the stranger, who Camila now recognizes as one of the soccer captains. 

"Hey Mila, I didn't know you were taking chem this year?" Normani asks with a smile as she turns to face the smaller girl. "Aren't you in bio with Dinah and them?"

"Yeah actually I'm coming from there, this is just an elective I guess," Camila answers shyly, not wanting to sound like she's bragging about her course load because she doesn't really think it's something to brag about, just a dumb choice that she's too lazy to go to guidance and change. 

"Whoa, hold up you're doubling up on sciences?" the raven haired girl breaks in curiously waiting for Camila's nod of confirmation to continue. "Fuck bio alone was hard enough but chemistry seems like it's about to be a shit show. Not trying to scare you of course just umm, if you ever need tutoring or help with shit let me or Mani know okay?" the stranger offers and Camila's face breaks into a smile at the offer from the kind girl whose name she can't place. "I'm Lauren by the way."

"Camila," Camila replies with a smile. "And thank you for the offer, I'll let you know but I spend enough time locked in my room to fit some studying in, shouldn't be too torturous," she jokes and luckily Lauren and Normani laugh along instead of looking at her weirdly for referencing how antisocial she is. 

Lauren has a nice laugh, Camila notices with a small grin, knowing to keep it subtle though. She's finally this year coming to terms with liking girls but she's always lacked subtlety staring at the pretty ones even before she knew she was bisexual. 

They chat for a few minutes, no teacher in sight yet and most of the class still not there, but ultimately the conversation shifts like this. 

"Fuck," Lauren mumbles, putting her pens back into her bag and waving over at the door before turning back to Camila and Normani. "I don't mean to be rude, but my friends just came in and I kind of promised I'd sit with them so..."

"That's fine Lo, nothing taken personal," Normani smiles in a friendly way, sending a wave herself towards the friends where Camila turns to spot Keana and Alexa bickering as they take an empty group of four. 

"Okay well it was nice to officially meet you Camila, and offer still stands, though I'm sure Mani is a better go for tutoring, hell I'll probably need your help by next week," Lauren jokes as she stands and swings her bag over her shoulder. 

"Yeah I'll see you around I guess," Camila smiles and then Lauren is up and across the room. A few moments later Hailee plops herself down in the vacated seat, introducing herself in a less charming but still polite way before ranting about her AP Bio class from earlier and how they already have homework packets. 

So Hailee turns out to be gay and Lauren turns out to be in Camila's algebra 2 class the following period too. 

Camila ends up assigned behind Lauren for the seating chart and she spends a majority of the first half of the year staring at Lauren's hair and wanting to run her fingers through the soft looking dark locks. 

They don't really talk, other than a few jokes and a few times that Camila helps Lauren answer a homework problem. One day they sit at lunch together with a group of mutual friends aftermath and junior prom comes up. It's only October still but it's exciting. When they're talking about the discount on tickets for gay students, Camila makes a comment/joke about assuming people are gay until proven straight instead of vice versa like normal people, and Lauren laughs at it for almost the whole lunch period. 

Camila doesn't know when she decides she has a huge crush on Lauren but it happens at some point. She's not out yet but she knows that Dinah and Shawn can read her like a book and know about it. Dinah warns her that Lauren's apparently kind of annoying and slutty which, "fuck you Dinah don't slut shame people you don't know," and Shawn just shoots Camila sympathetic looks whenever she randomly finds a way to insert Lauren into the conversation. 

Halfway into October Lauren comes into school on crutches and as said, Camila has a slight crush at this point so she can't help but feel awfully for the girl despite never really talking to her. She works up the courage to offer to help carry Lauren's bags to algebra 2 since they have that class together anyways but Lauren insists that some boy scout Hunter already took the job himself with a playful roll of her eyes. 

Lauren's dating someone she thinks, doesn't know her too well so she can't be sue but she always sees her with a boy from drama club and is relieved that at least it's Liam, who's a total sweetheart, and not some fuck boy. But still, she is dating someone else so Camila kind of thinks having a crush on her is a bad idea, so she thinks maybe she should just stop it (as if).

The second half of the year goes the same as the first, Camila with a hopeless crush and Lauren with a lack of knowledge for Camila's infatuation. Sometimes Camila wonders if Lauren even remembers her name, but occasionally Lauren will ask her what she got for a math problem and that's enough for her. 

It's not even a major crush though, sure she gets a little ache in her chest whenever she sees Lauren with Curtis (her new boyfriend in the spring who's once again a pretty decent guy), but that's just because Camila is kind of a hopeless romantic and she takes her crushes seriously. 

Still though, she has other crushes too, and by the time it's summer, she kind of forgets all about Lauren since they never see each other and moves on to other people who she likes to daydream about kissing and calling beautiful. 

Plus the last month of school they pick their own seats in math so Lauren moves over to sit with Hailee (the only other junior in the class) and Dinah moves to sit with Camila. 

So yeah she's over it. 

After sitting with Hailee for a year in chemistry Camila finds herself hanging out with the older girl more, until finally she's comfortable enough to tell Hailee about her sexuality. She trusts Hailee, maybe it's because she's gay herself, maybe it's because she seems like a good friend, but once she tells her it all kind of spills and her "past" crush on Lauren becomes a major teasing point. 

Hailee admits that although she is kind of friends with Lauren, she's always thought the girl was annoying in a way, not really able to explain why, but she also doesn't make any rude comments or hasty remarks like Dinah had, she just shoots Camila's hopes down by drawing out how straight Lauren is.  

Junior year for Camila comes fast though and it's a busy start in which she shares no classes with the raven haired girl. 

When she sees her in the hall she gets butterflies in her stomach and when Lauren smiles back at her she feels like she's getting punched in the gut, but now Lauren's dating Brad who's kind of a fuck boy so she's definitely over it (even if she's not). 

Camila ends up on crutches because of a sprained ankle for only a week, but Lauren smiles at her in the halls more that week and Camila smiles back a little brighter with a small chuckle because it kind of feels like an inside joke with them both being crippled at around the same time years apart and all.

For the most part Camila doesn't really notice Lauren, obviously whenever she sees ehrs eh does, but it's a huge school with a lot of people, so yeah, that's a thing of the past. 

"Fucking, what the fuck is it?" Camila mumbles into the phone as she rolls over in bed to eye her alarm clock that reads three in the morning. Hailee better be in jail or a killer's basement if she's waking Camila up this early (late?) for some shit.

"You'll never guess who just accidentally drunkenly outed herself!" Hailee screams into the phone, obviously high and obviously trying to talk over the loud music of a party Camila chose to not attend. Hailee is like her only friend who would've been there anyways since Dinah is out of town, so why would she go. 

She gets annoyed at first, that she's being woken up to find out that someone did something like that. Hailee sounds excited but Camila feels more annoyed that she's happy that someone did something they might not be ready to face the sober consequences of. 

"The answer my sleepy friend is Lauren Jauregui," she continues to yell and Camila feels her breath hitch and sits up in bed, suddenly more awake than she was before. "Do you hear me Mila? You finally got a chance to hop on that girl, the Lauren Jauregui! It's crazy I always assumed she was straight but she just- boom, it happened she just said she's bi and-"

"I'm going back to bed Hails," Camila grunts out and hangs up before her friend can reply. 

Camila's too tired to think about whether or not she's actually over it. She thinks it's ironic now that Lauren laughed so hard at her whole "assume people are gay" joke. 

The next morning she isn't though. Her and Dinah decide to get coffee since they're both up and they need to catch up since Dinah's been gone all week. 

When Camila casually tries to bring up that Lauren outed herself, she can feel Dinah sending her a calculating look so she quickly changes the subject to how she stopped texting Austin because he kept trying to make her give him head and ew, why do guys act like that so often? 

Ultimately over the course of the next few weeks she forgets about it. Not really actually, but she doesn't think of Lauren a lot, it's just whenever she sees her in the halls or hear's her name brought up that she remembers the spark of hope that maybe she could have a chance with her dream girl. 

It's two weeks later that Dinah finally drags Camila out to a party, pulling some line about not wanting to go alone and Camila was planning to have a night in reading but instead she decides to cave at least this once for her friend, hoping to get a break for at least a year or two after this. 

"Walz, you sure you're fine going? I didn't mean to pressure you but I'm probably going to spend most of the time with Siope anyways - no don't make that face we're still just friends -but you'll be all good?" Dinah queries as they walk from her car to the back door of some dimly lit house down the street that will probably smell like teenage disappointment mixed with weed. 

"Yeah Cheech I promise I'll be all good, and I'm not drinking obviously so you can have fun, just try to stay stable we don't want a repeat of Christian's house last year," Camila teases, looking back on the time DInah got so blackout drunk she woke up with bruises and cuts she didn't remember getting. 

"Shush up," Dinah scolds with a blush at the memory. 

They continue the small walk in silence and as soon as they're in Camila regrets going. She doesn't say anything obviously, but she plasters a fake smile on and goes off to hangout with Shawn and Niall who're smoking in the kitchen with some other people she doesn't know. 

She's never been a party person and mainly just because she's socially awkward, but also because she hates being the only sober one because then she feels responsible when something goes wrong. 

"I have an announcement to make!" she hears someone shout from the couch area and sure enough Lauren Jauregui is unstably standing on the couch with her hands cupped over her mouth. "Guys listen please I-" she cuts herself off as she almost trips but her giggly friend Keana gives her a hand in staying up. "I lost my phone, I repeat, missing phone on the loose and I need it. It has a purple case and- hey wait Keana come back don't..." she trails off, obviously getting distracted in her drunken state. 

Camila thinks she wants to find Lauren's phone. 

They don't talk so she obviously doesn't want to seem desperate to help because nobody else is, but obviously the older girl is completely shitfaced and obviously a phone is a necessary thing to have. She scans over the counters, trying to be subtle but probably not succeeding (not that it matters, everyone is too high to notice anyways). 

She comes up empty but luckily spots Zendaya sitting in the couch area charging her phone, so she heads over there to look more. Having someone to talk to in the area just helps lessen her anxiety about being in the party in the first place, which is why she's going to be using people as musical chairs to look for Lauren's phone. 

"Hey Z," Camila greets with a smile and Zendaya looks up in a daze and smiles brightly back waving over before looking back at her phone. 

Austin comes over, drunk and obnoxious as ever, flirting with both girls at the same time but not noticing that Camila's attention isn't on him, but rather digging between the couch cushions to find a certain purple cased phone. 

She doesn't know why she needs to find it really, just that it might give her an excuse to talk to Lauren even if only for a minute. 

She hits something that feels an awful lot like a lifeproof case and her face automatically breaks into a smile as she manovuers hr fingers between the cushions in attempt to get a better grip. Geez, how the fuck did she get this so stuck down here, Camila wonders but the thought leaves her head when she pulls it out and it is a purple case, a breath of relief leaving her lips. 

Lauren stumbles into the area a moment later, Alexa on her heels this time as she struggles to focus on scanning the tables and floor for the phone, but Camila catches her before she hurts herself looking. 

"Lauren," she calls shyly and can't help but smile when wide green eyes meet hers right away. "Is this it?" she asks nervously holding up the phone and Lauren's face breaks into a smile that makes her want to hide her phone again later just so she can find it again. 

"Oh my god Camila Cabello you are a lifesaver, you-" Lauren cuts herself off by pulling Camila into a tight hug but moe stumbling into it herself. "Thanks so much," Lauren continues, cupping Camila's cheeks in her drunken haze and smiling brightly as she wraps her other arm around the flustered girl's shoulders. "I love you oh my god thank you so-"

"Lauren give the girl space god," Alexa cuts in, obviously less drunk and eyeing Camil a little skeptically before throwing her a smirk and wink, but still pulling Lauren off before she can ramble anymore. Then her attention is on beerpong though, and Alexa sends Camila another grateful look before following Lauren. 

She goes back to Shawn, still smiling over her moment but now focusing more on how to kill the next hour or two while Dinah has fun. 

They end up upstairs with a group, smoking in a free room while Camila looks after a few drunk sleeping people and laughs along with the stoners. 

"No I don't wanna- Lu stop it I'm not in the mood for this," she hears outside when it's nearing midnight and it doesn't take her over a few seconds to recognize Lauren's voice. Everybody in the room stops their laughing when they hear it and a few concerned looks are shared based on Luis's track records and Camila is the first one up and out the door, Shawn close behind her. 

"What the fuck is going on here?" she demands as she walks across the small hall, kicking open the door to see Lauren lying on the bed with Luis's hand working it's way up her shirt. 

"Camila hey we were just getting to it, no big deal though but could you shut the door on your-"

"Luis, dude she's fucked up don't do this right now," Shawn scolds as she steps into the room behind Camila who's glared hard enough for Luis to move his hands back to himself, Lauren dazed in place on the bed. 

"What? She's.. She's totally fine, she does this every week," Luis tries to argue, feigning oblivion as he reaches for Lauren's hand, trying to make her seem awake but her eyes have drifted closed at this point. 

"Luis go downstairs, have fun with the rest of the party, I'm not leaving the room until you do," Camila says in a calm tone, knowing he's the only other sober person here and knowing that he won't go through with it if she shames him enough. "This is completely taking advantage of her and you know it too," she continues and that's what makes him snap out of the bed and start towards the door, pouting like a five year old who was just sent to the time out corner. 

"It's fucking not but if you want to be a fucking tight ass about it-"

"Dude just get the fuck downstairs," Shawn cuts in, shoving him out the door and towards the stairs, which unfortunately Luis manages to not fall down. 

"Thanks Shawn, you good with the people in there? I want to make sure he doesn't creep back up for her?" Camila suggests with a disgusted look at the fact that people actually have the thought process of Luis. 

"Yeah Mila I got them, and if not Zendaya was sobering up so I can send her for help. Plus I think Keana said they were leaving at 12:30 so you shouldn't have to babysit for too long, I know you don't like it," he jokes gesturing to Lauren who's passed out on the bed. 

"I'll be all good, don't get too turnt," she waves him off and he turns giving her a grossed out look before shutting the door. 

Camila sighs and runs a hand through her hair before lowering the light a little bit and going to perch at the edge of the bed Lauren is on, but is stunned when she turns around and Lauren is sitting up slightly looking at her with a smile. 

"Thank you Camz," Lauren mumbles, reaching a hand out to lightly grasp Camila's making butterflies shoot tenfold in her stomach and everywhere else. "First my phone, now from that douchebag, you really are my savior," she continues in a cute dazed way that makes Camila feel like she might die because an overdose of sweetness. 

"No problem Lo," Camila squeezes her hand back and leans against the headboard tentatively, apparently inviting Lauren to lean on her shoulder and go back to sleep. 

She doesn't go on her phone, doesn't go to sleep, doesn't really do anything. She just lies with Lauren Jauregui, the girl who she barely knows but feels so much for. 

"Knock knock? Camila? Lauren? You guys in here still?" a voice breaks the silence after god knows how long (45 minutes). Camila lifts her head in the darkness and makes out Alexa smirking at her from the doorway in the dim light. "Hey I'm here to scoop up this one. Sorry if she gave you any trouble - and if she didn't thank you for sitting with her I lost her  awhile ago but Shawn said you had her and I figured you're a trustworthy person," Alexa smiles as she sits at the edge of the be against Camila's legs. 

"It was no problem at all really," Camila smiles as she gently lifts Lauren off her shoulder and runs a hand through her messy hair from lying down. "I'm not much of a party person so I didn't mind watching her to make sure nobody tried to pull anything."

"Well still," Alexa smiles and reaches to shake Lauren's shoulder to wake her while still looking at Camila, "thank you." 

Camila helps her carry Lauren downstairs, blushing when Lauren's hand brushes against high on her rib cage and smiling when she finally sits Lauren in Alexa's car because it means she's managed to keep Lauren safe for at least tonight. Alexa's boyfriend thanks her too before getting into the driver's seat since he's designated driver and Alea shoots her another smug smile and hugs her goodbye before they're gone. 

She watches them drive away, missing Lauren's presence and cursing the fact that obviously she isn't over it, before turning around and getting ready to carry Dinah back to her own car. 

Things kind of change the next week. The third term of school begins, so schedules shift and lunches change. Camila gets the unlucky luck of having her lunch with only seniors. She sits with Hailee, Lauren, Alexa, Troye, and a few other randoms but spends most time talking to Hailee since she's comfortable with that (and Hailee kees making snippy comments at Lauren cause she still doesn't really like her or whatever and Camila wants to stop seeing Lauren's eyes go sad so she figures she'll distract the girl). 

"I'm telling you Mila, just go to the party on Friday and you can totally hookup with her, then poof, crush gone," Hailee jokes over facetime late one night as Camila crams for their precalculus quiz (it's Hailee and Camila's only class together and their priorities are shown by the current situation). "C'mon Camila it'll be fun, it's St. Patty's day for Christ's sake."

"I know, I know but can you please, can we please focus here? We have like six hours until this quiz and I still don't get anything," Camila cuts in, trying to ignore the blush at the idea of hooking up with Lauren but also knowing she would never go through with it, not if Lauren's drunk. 

"I'm just saying if you don't hook up with her I will," Hailee teases from the other line and that certainly catches Camila's attention. 

"Hailee-"

"I'm kidding, god chill out, I mean sure she's hot as fuck but- actually no I would hookup with her but she's kind of annoying as fuck," Hailee concludes as she thinks over the idea. 

"Hailee we've been friends for a while now and I know I haven't exactly made a move but would you actually do that to me?" Camila asks with a frown at the thought of Hailee going after the girl she knows Camila is crushing on hard. 

"No because you're not going to pussy out," Hailee answers simply as she leans over to finally pull her notes out of her bag. "So the plan now for Friday..."

Camila groans in annoyance but listens for the next hour as Hailee plans how she's going to set the two up. 

-

Camila goes to the party for an hour. Lauren isn't there because the school musical is that night and Lauren of course helps direct it. Hailee is there for like ten minutes in the end of Camila's stay, but ultimately she decides it's not worth it and calls an uber. 

She leaves Dinah with Zendaya who's vowed not to drink and goes home for a night of reading and netflix. 

-

Camila's best friend is still Dinah, especially since she's come out to her and they've grown closer in trust, but Hailee relates to her more in the whole being bi way, so telling her about her gay problems is just natural. 

so I had a dream that I was dating this really cute girl on my basketball team but I woke up and I don't play basketball or know that girl so I'm upset.

Camila sends the text with a chuckle, thinking it's funny and rolling over for maybe five more minutes of nap time, but a vibration from her phone cuts out that idea and she turns to see two new messages from Hailee. 

lol I hooked up w Lauren last night

That's the first one.

she fucked Luis after.

That's the second one.

She doesn't reply. That's not true actually, she sends back "you're a dick" but then she doesn't reply for the rest of the three day weekend. She's mad at Hailee and she really regrets getting any sort of crush on Lauren Jauregui at this point.

She knows it's a little unfair. If she had been actively pursuing Lauren she would've been a lot more mad, it's just that Hailee knew she liked the girl, and she also knew that Camila had specifically said she'd be mad if she kissed her at all. So Camila doesn't really know how to approach this. 

Hailee blows up her phone, but not with apologies, just more stories about how many people she got with and how fun the party was and how drunk Lauren was and Camila feels a bit sick to her stomach as the notifications roll in. Hailee isn't apologetic, that's the main point. She knows that Camila is hurt by this and she told her they hooked up without a care. Not to mention telling her Luis fucked her after knowing how proud Camila was for keeping him away from her the last week. 

Lunch is awkward to say the least. Camila hasn't talked to Hailee in three days and Hailee is acting like she has no reason to be upset, obliviously greeting her with a wave to which Camila flips her off and moves over to sit with Troye. Lauren and Alexa stop laughing at whatever they were with Hailee when they see the reaction but Zendaya starts a conversation quickly with the group to make sure there's no awkward tension. 

"You okay butterfly girl?" Troye nudges her quietly, smiling gently and Camila thinks he's the cutest person ever and can't not smile back, glad that the rest of the table isn't paying them attention. 

"Yeah I'm, I'll be fine," Camila decides and pulls out a banana and gatorade before deciding to spend the lunch catching up with the boy since she hasn't talked to him much this month. 

It goes over this way for the next week, Camila saying "fuck you," to Hailee then ignoring the world besides Troye. 

She catches Alexa's eye on the Thursday though and can't ignore the girl when she nods towards the bathroom then gets up. Camila follows slowly, trying not to blush under Lauren's quizzical stare at the two leaving. 

"Look Camila," Alexa starts as she pulls the other girl into the bathroom and checks to make sure nobody's feet are under the stalls. "They were both shit faced, I know that's not an excuse for Hailee being a douche about it but-"

"Woah woah woah wait Hailee told you guys that's why I'm mad?" camila cuts in demandingly, horrified at the idea of Lauren knowing how petty she's being over this. 

"Ha god know, Hailee is being a bit of a bitch about it, I just have a pair of eyes and know how to work them," Alexa answers with a chuckle. "I don't know how Lauren hasn't noticed considering her eyes don't really leave you but like, seriously it meant shit to her. So you can be mean to Hailee for however long you want and I'll support it but come to my house tomorrow night. Not a lot of people will be there but I'll try to help you out okay?"

Camila's jaw is a little bit agape because of everything that was just said, but she nods hesitantly at the invitation, assuming maybe it's a small get together but not knowing what to expect in the slightest. But you know what? Fuck everything and hopefully fuck Lauren Jauregui, she's done playing nice and if the chance comes she's getting her dream girl no matter what.

Dinah apparently has an invite too and it's not a small get together but a pretty big party, just more exclusive when it comes to who's allowed in. 

 

Lauren is drunk when she gets there. That would ruin old Camila's plans. Well honestly it still kind of does ruin her plans because obviously Camila can't actually go through with taking advantage of her what kind of person would that make her out to be? But new Camila is mad and likes to pretend she's still going to go through with whatever flirting he can conjure up, so she makes her way over to where Lauren and Harry are drunkenly perched on the couch gigling over god knows what. 

"Hey Mila," Harry grins, spotting her first and making Lauren's head snap up towards her.

"Camz!" she squeals in delight at seeing her and pulls her down onto the couch into a hug, partially in her lap making Camila blush red as a tomato. "Camzi I haven't talked to you all week," she notes happily and Camila smiles confusedly because she doesn't quite know when they ever really talked. 

"Hey Lo, Haz, what're you guys laughing about over here it seems fun?" she questions with a grin as Harry leans on her shoulder and Lauren moves more into her lap on the other side (obviously a touchy drunk). 

The question spikes the two to start laughing even more once again before one of them can answer Camila, who is a little high from the joint on the way here but not nearly enough to laugh at nothing yet. 

"Well me and Lo were talking about like, you know, having a threesome or some shit," Harry explains through his giggles and Camila feels her jaw drop slightly but tries to keep a curious smile plastered on. "But we don't know who to get, or like, you know how to be subtle about it," he elaborates further with a smirk. 

"Harry," Lauren leans over to whisper but the whispering is ineffective because she's literally on top of Camila. "what about her?" and she's giggling as she says it still, which makes Camila know that the girl will probably fall asleep before she can successfully fuck someone like the last time she partied with Lauren. 

But now both drunks are looking at Camila, smiling widely with hopeful eyes and new Camila kind of has a plan and- "I'm not drunk enough for this," she decides with a straight face making them both go into another fit of laughter as Lauren lens over to reach for an abandoned cup that Camila reluctantly takes a chug from before she feels Harry's hand pulling her up and Lauren's warm arm sneaking around her waist. 

She's never been to Alexa's house, she's not as drunk as them but her nervousness and her eagerness and her confusedness combine to make her two thousand times more out of it and she lets them lead her towards the staircase. It's a busy staircase though, and Harry's voice perks up with a laugh at one point and then his hand is out of hers and he's still laughing with whom Camila thinks is Zayn Malik about some interrupting cow joke. 

Fuck wait that means-

"Looks like it's a twosome," Lauren jokes into the crook of Camila's neck as she pushes her over the threshold into a dark room that Camila assumes is a bedroom before shoving Camila up against the closing door. 

She lets Lauren kiss her neck for a few moments, wrapping her hands nervously to play with the drunk girl's hair as she peppers kisses and nips occasionally at the soft, heated skin. 

She doesn't see the kiss coming. 

Now Camila has been wanting to kiss Lauren for a long time now. Maybe it was since that day in algebra when Lauren couldn't put her own chair up because of the crutches so Camila did it for her and she was thanked with a smile. Maybe it was in chemistry that one time they worked on a lab together with Normani too and Lauren ate the m&ms they were supposed to be measuring the mass of then shushed them when the teacher walked around. Maybe- no definitely it was that first day of chemistry when Camila had no idea who she was, just knew she kind of wanted to kiss her. 

The actual kiss isn't the sweet first kiss she wants though. It tastes like tequila and weed and Lauren's tongue feels too sloppy in her mouth because the girl is still laughing and the hands pawing at her waist aren't trying to grope, but rather stay up steadily and Camila can't do this. 

"Fuck," Camila pulls away with a gasp and holds at Lauren's shoulders when the older girl tries to go back in for another kiss. "Lauren..." Camila interrupts the attempted kissing and after a moment finally manages to separate herself completely but doesn't let go of Lauren's arms so the girl doesn't fall over. 

"Camz what's - did I do something wrong or..?" Lauren asks nervously, not giggling anymore and looking down at the ground anxiously. 

"No no that's not... it's nothing you did Lo it's just..." Camila trails off and before she can finish decides Lauren needs to sit down and she does too because she can't believe she almost just did that. She leads Lauren over to the bed and the dejected girl slowly follows and allows herself to be sat down, reaching to turn to bedside lamp on so that she can see Camila's face. 

Camila wants to cry when she sees how dazed and sad Lauren is. 

Scratch that, she does cry when she sees how dazed and sad Lauren is. 

"Camz? Fuck Camila what's wrong did I like... fuck did I make you uncomfortable or something with that? I shouldn't have done that oh my-" Lauren begins nervously pulling Camila towards her to half embrace her and rubbing gently at the tears falling from the smaller girl's eyes, not knowing what was done wrong but wanting to fix it because she doesn't like when Camila is sad. 

"No Lauren it's not your fault that was mine," Camila interjects, sniffling lamely and trying to think of how to fix this without humiliating herself. "Fuck I've just... I've wanted to kiss you for the longest time but never like that..." and welp she just confessed that by mistake, "you're just, you're pretty drunk Lo and I don't want to be that person who saves you one night only to take advantage of you myself the next," she explains nervously, hoping Lauren won't realize this and get mad at her.

"Camz..." Lauren trails off sadly, knowing now what the younger girl is so saddened by. "Camila you didn't though, you stopped because you're a good person, you're an amazing person actually, not many people would stop at that point, trust me I'd know," Lauren notes sadly as she pulls Camila closer to her on the bed so she can wipe some more tears that have mostly stopped falling after that moment of weakness that they started to. 

"I'm just sorry still okay? I'm sorry if you felt at all like... I don't know what I'm sorry for but-"

"I know what you're sorry for and I forgive you," Lauren finishes for her, not wanting the younger girl to stress and lying down on the bed with a soft smile thrown towards Camila gesturing for her to lie down too. It's almost eleven but Lauren can't find it in herself to want anything other than time with only Camila. She kind of wishes she stayed sober so she could enjoy it more. "Now can we nap?" she asks with a smile in her voice that Camila can't deny. 

"How long have you wanted to kiss me?" Lauren whispers into the silence once they've settled down next to each other. 

Camila laughs dryly for a moment before deciding to give an honest answer, "I think the first day of chemistry."

"That's a long time," Lauren notes after another moment of silence taken to absorb the information, taking a longer moment and a deep breath before continuing, "I've wanted to kiss you since you offered to carry my bag for me when I was on crutches." 

Camila's breath hitches in her throat at that. Does that mean- this whole time she's been pining it hasn't been a one way street? She hasn't wasted a year and a half following this girl like a lost puppy? 

"I'm-" Camila goes to answer but Lauren immediately cuts her off.

"Planning to kiss me on monday when we're both sober? Same here, bet I'll beat you," Lauren teases and Camila feels her face go red but she also feels a smile bigger than one she's had in awhile and she realizes this is the happiest she's been in weeks or in forever since Lauren Jauregui just admitted she kind of liked her at least a little bit. "Now take a nap, Alexa knows we're up here so she'll tell Dinah where you are if she's looking later."

And - Camila might have noticed that wait if Alexa knew they'd both be here then she must have known ahead of time that they would be and that maybe Lauren had a plan to at least get Camila up here at all and Alexa did invite her with the purpose of helping out so maybe - but she's on cloud nine and that's too much thought for cloud nine. 

Cloud nine is instead a place that she allows herself to curl into Lauren's chest and take a nap while music blasts and people party a floor below them. 

She doesn't know how long they nap but it's not long enough before she's being tapped on the shoulder then shaken a little more roughly. 

"Mila get your ass up we gotta be home in like ten minutes," Dinah whisper shouts into her ear and Camila takes a second to burrow into the warmth she's on before remembering the warmth is Lauren and blushing, fighting the urge to squeal, and sitting up slowly.

She thinks about waking up Lauren, so she does. 

"Lo," Camila urges quietly, shaking her shoulder gently then rubbing down her arm. "Lo I'm going home, I'll see you in school?" she offers and Lauren lets out a sleepy sigh that makes Camila's heart melt, as she gives up waking her up because Lauren sleeping is too cute and paces a kiss on her forehead before heading out. 

Dinah decides Lauren might not be that bad on the ride home when Camila vents about how amazing she is, finally open about her not so little crush. 

"Fu-"

"I'm so sorry Camila I don't even, I don't know why I did it and I don't know why I was a bitch about it but I'm sorry," Hailee apologizes as soon as Camila makes it to the lunch table on the following Monday ready to flip her off. "I was going through shit with Brianna and I was drunk and I thought if I played it off with humor, you know like I do everything else, that you wouldn't be mad," Hailee continues, and Camila's still mad but Hailee Steinfeld is an actual puppy dog so it's hard to hold a straight face. 

She's not going to cave though, not right away anyways, maybe make her grovel a little bit, maybe make her pay, maybe get someone to hookup with one of Hailee's crushes and-

Her thoughts are cut off by a pair of lips crashing into hers. No actually crashing isn't really the right word for it. They collide, softly yet firmly and they're so soft and supple and okay a little chapped but not the bad type of chapped, just more firm and Camila doesn't mind because Lauren tastes like strawberries and camila always knew she would because of the strawberry gum that she used to chew in math, and she doesn't stick her tongue in her mouth but it does graze over her lower lip in a way that makes Camila's stomach flutter in the best of ways and it isn't long because they're in the middle of the cafeteria but it's everything Camil had hoped it would be, even for all the times she insisted she wasn't hoping for it. 

"Looks like I beat you," Lauren grins as she finally pulls away and Camila matches the grin and thinks that getting a crush on Lauren Jauregui was definitely a good idea.


End file.
